Watergate: Nixon's Downfall

1. How are the "plumbers" connected to President Nixon?

The "plumbers" or burglars that were hired by President Nixon to break into the DNC, are connected to President Nixon because he paid them about $450,000 to keep them silent and all the photographs or documents they took or photographed were shredded so that there wouldn't be any evidence that they took anything from DNC. Woodward and Bernstein looked into the Watergate burglary while no one else did, so they made the connections with the burglars or Watergate to the President and his administration. For example, they made links to many members of the adminstration to the burglary.

2. Who was the judge? Why did he hand out maximum sentences?

The judge was John Sirica. He handed out maximum sentences because he believed that the burglars didn't act by themselves, that they had outside help.

3. How were Mitchell and Dean connected to Nixon?

Mitchell and Dean were connected to Nixon by Nixon being accused of trying to cover-up the burglary. Nixon "dismissed" Dean from office and replaced Mitchell with Kleindienst, which was seen as an attempt at covering up the scandal by Nixon.

4. How were Haldeman and Erlichman connected to Nixon?

Haldeman and Erlichman were connected to Nixon because he had announced their resignition from the White House, and after President Nixon released the real tapes there were conversations between Nixon and Haldemen (and probably Erlichman) where they discussed strategies for covering up the burglary and scandal.

5. What did the following men tell the Senate about Nixon?

a. Dean told the Senate what the president knew, when he knew it, and that he, the president, and a couple other advisors had a meeting discussing the strategies to continue the deceit.

b. Butterfield told the Senate that President Nixon had taped all of his meetings and discussions, which some were about the deceit and scandal. He also said that the recordings and tapes were made so that it would be easier for President Nixon to write his memoirs.

6. Who was fired or forced to resign in the "massacre"?

Attorney General Richardson and the deputy attorney general resigned after refusing to fire Archibald Cox. Then General Robert Bork finally fired Cox, however Cox's replacement (Leon Jaworski) was just as determined to get the tapes from Nixon.

7. Why weren't investigators satisified with the transcripts?

The investigators weren't satisfied with the transcripts because they were edited and there was one section where about eighteen minutes nobody talked or said anything, it was expunged so that the investigators wouldn't know what Nixon and Haldeman had said. The secretary said that she accidentally deleted them.

8. What did the tapes reveal?

The tapes revealed that President Nixon new about the role of the administrators in the burglary and that he approved the plan to distract or take the investigation away from the FBI. Also, it revealed the eighteen minute conversation between Haldeman and Nixon which ended up disclosing the investigation completely, in other words the investigation and trial came to a conclusion.

9. Why did Vice President Spiro Agnew resign?

Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because it was revealed that he took bribery from engineering firms while he was the governor of Maryland, and he thought that he'd be impeached because he thought he had no chance in winning the trial. He probably thought this because of the trial and testimonies of Nixon's scandal, he saw that the President was going down in flames and probably wanted to resign or leave with some dignity and didn't want everyone to take the time to go through trials and etcetera when he knew that he would lose.

10. What did the House Judiciary Committee charge President Nixon with?

The House Judiciary Committee charged President Nixon with high crimes and misdameanors. They decided that the president should be impeached because of the scandal, which the crimes and misdameanors of the scandal made the committee discuss and decide wheither or not President Nixon should be impeached. Also, they convicted him with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress for not obeying to release the tapes to Congress after they told him to.

11. How did the Watergate scandal create a constitutional crisis?

The Watergate scandal created a constitutional crisis by Congress having to revisit the constitution. They had to fix how much power the President could have and fix the guidelines for the reasons why a president should be considered or should be impeached.